New Zealand Tourism Seeks to Cash in On Avatar Sequels

After Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit franchise, New Zealand tourism is looking to cash in on the sequels of 2009 movie Avatar by James Cameron. The director has told of 3 more Avatar movies which will be shot in New Zealand.

James Cameron made the announcement along with Prime Minister of New Zealand John Key. The sequel of Avatar is scheduled to hit the screens across the world on Christmas 2016. While the third installment will be released in 2018.

The government of New Zealand is extending all possible benefits to the Lightstorm Entertainment and Twentieth Century Fox to ensure it can cash in on the films. The government has increased the rebate from 15 per cent to 25 per cent for the next installments of Avatar movies.

The first movie of the franchise was also shot in New Zealand. Tourism officials are hopeful that Avatar movies will benefit tourism just like the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit franchise.

The Hobbit franchise will end in 2014 which will pretty much put some brakes on the Lord of the Rings tourism in New Zealand. In the five years following the release of first Lord of the Rings the tourism in New Zealand increased by 40 per cent.

When the impact of Lord of the Rings trilogy started to fade away, Peter Jackson announced The Hobbit trilogy which gave New Zealand some reason to smile. The numbers are currently steady with 2.5 million tourist arrivals.

At this moment it is extremely difficult to say whether the Avatar sequels will have same impact on the tourism as Lord of the Rings. The first installment released in 2009 hardly made any impact on the tourism.

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